Yahoo Sports This Kentucky baseball team keeps proving it doesn’t want its special season to end
They just want to keep going. That’s the thing. This season has been so special for these Kentucky baseball Wildcats, so magical, they can’t bear the thought that it might somehow come to an end. Or should come to an end.
“This team has true belief,” Nick Mingione said on Sauturday.
The Kentucky coach said it after his Cats battled back from a 4-3 deficit to tie North Carolina State on a Ryan Nicholson home run in the ninth inning, then win it 5-4 on a Mitchell Daly walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th in the opening round of the College World Series at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
Wait a minute, home runs, from a Kentucky team that had epitomized and excelled at so-call “small ball” all season?
“We can bunt,” Mingione said, “but we can hit homers, too.”
Those long balls extended Kentucky’s unbeaten streak in this NCAA Tournament to six games and killed any notion that the Wildcats would simply be satisfied with making the program’s first trip to Omaha.
In fact, there were a couple of times Saturday when the Cats could have folded the tent, or used the “first-timers” excuse and settle for the loser’s bracket route.
After Nolan McCarthy hit a two-run home run to give UK a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning, the Cats watched N.C. State’s Alec Makarewicz tie it at 3-3 on a two-out, two-strike, two-run shot of his own off Kentucky starter Trey Pooser in the seventh inning.
The Cats then watched N.C. State take that 4-3 lead in the ninth inning when the first pitch from reliever Johnny Hummel hit the dirt and skipped past catcher Devin Burkes, allowing Garrett Pennington to score from third base.
“One of (this team’s) many qualities is its ability to focus on the task at hand and move on immediately,” Mingione said afterward.
Hummel moved on. With one out and a man on second base, he got out of the inning without added damage and ended up pitching 1 2/3 innings of no-hit, one-walk baseball to record the victory.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky offense moved on, too. Nicholson had hit three home runs in UK’s previous five tournament games when he stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the ninth. He made it No. 4 by sending freshman reliever Jacob Dudan’s 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall to knot the game.
It didn’t phase the Cats that later that inning they failed to get McCarthy in from third base for what would have been the winning run. Nor did it phase the Cats when after leading off the 10th with a walk, Devin Burkes was thrown out attempting to steal second base on a failed hit-and-run.
Two pitches later, Daly took N.C. State’s star reliever, Derrick Smith, out of the park to send Kentucky to a winner’s bracket game at 7 p.m. Monday.
It was just the third earned run Smith has allowed over his last 15 appearances.
“It was a tough day to hit for power, which is one of our trademarks,” N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said of the windy conditions.
Not for everybody.
“This win was very much how we win baseball games,” said Mingione, adding, “I’ve said before, we have a whatever-it-takes offense.”
It has not phased these Cats either that its best player has failed to catch fire this tournament. Leadoff hitter Ryan Waldschmidt, considered a possible first-round pick in next month’s MLB draft, is now 5-for-24 in the NCAAs, including 1-for-16 in his last four games. He entered the postseason hitting .357.
“Wally will probably tell you this wasn’t his best,” Nicholson said after Waldschmidt went 0-for-4 with a walk. “Wait till he gets hot.”
And after such a long wait to finally reach Omaha, these Cats showed Saturday they are in no hurry to see the trip, or this special season, come to an end.
As Daly told ESPN after his game-winner, “There’s a whole lot more baseball to be played.”
College World Series
Friday through June 24 at Omaha, Nebraska.
FRIDAY:
Game 1: North Carolina 3, Virginia 2.
Game 2: Tennessee 12, Florida State 11.
SATURDAY:
Game 3: Kentucky 5, N.C. State 4 (10 innings).
Game 4: Texas A&M vs. Florida, 7 p.m. (ESPN).
SUNDAY:
Game 5: Virginia vs. Florida State, 2 p.m. (ESPN).
Game 6: North Carolina vs. Tennessee, 7 p.m. (ESPN).
MONDAY:
Game 7: N.C. State vs. Game 4 loser, 2 p.m. (ESPN).
Game 8: Kentucky vs. Game 4 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN).
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